Itse Sagay: Most Bills On Constitution Amendment ‘Irrelevant’ To Nigeria’s Needs

Hamilton Nwosa
Writer

Ad

Dangote Vs PENGASSAN Face-off Escalates as NLC Orders Nationwide Strike

By Abiola Olawale The face-off between Dangote Refinery, owned by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has continued to escalate as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has ordered full-scale mobilization of its affiliate unions for a nationwide strike. The NLC said it ordered the…

PSC warns senior officers: fail promotion exam three times, face retirement

By Obinna Uballa The Police Service Commission (PSC) on Monday conducted a compulsory promotion examination for 30 senior police officers in Abuja, with a stern warning that those who fail the test three times will be forced into retirement. The exercise, held at the Commission’s headquarters, involved one Assistant Inspector-General of Police, two Commissioners of…

Brent Prices Retreat below $70 as OPEC+ Mulls Another Output Hike

Brent Crude prices dropped below $70 per barrel, and WTI Crude slipped below $65, due to increased supply and expectations of further output hikes from OPEC+. Iraq resumed crude oil exports from Kurdistan via a pipeline to Turkey, adding an estimated 230,000 barrels per day to the global oil market after a two-and-a-half-year halt. OPEC+…

Ad

The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay has stated that most of the items proposed by the National Assembly as amendments to the 1999 constitution are “totally irrelevant” to the country’s immediate needs.

Voting process on the alteration to some sections of the 1999 constitution commenced on Tuesday at the national assembly . The assembly voted on the bills seeking to give special seats to women as lawmakers, financial autonomy for LGAs, immunity for senate president and speaker, diaspora voting, among others.

The lawmakers voted on 68 bills at Tuesday’s plenary.

However, Sagay, while speaking during an interview on Channels Television, asserted that the lawmakers should have addressd the question of restructuring.

He said, he noticed that a lot of attention was on issues that are totally irrelevant with regards to the local government, noting that they should not be talking about local government in the constitution.

“I have gone through most of the items which the national assembly has taken up and unfortunately, it has conformed with what I have felt about their modifications of the constitution,” he said.

“They are totally irrelevant to our needs at the moment. What is necessary and what is causing a lot of problems in the country is the question of restructuring — the question of having a true federalism. They have not touched that at all.

“If I may give an example of what I’m talking about, we should be talking of funding formula for the federation. There should be no federation account.

“We should retain the provisions of the 1963 constitution under which regions, now states, retained 50 percent of its resources, sent 20 percent to the federal government, and sent 30 percent to a distributable pool — to be distributed among the states of the federation in accordance with your level of sufficiency in terms of provisions.

“Under the distributable pool, the least able state — the poorest state — gets more from that pool. Every state, even the rich ones, also gets some. Under that formula, 50 for the state, 20 for the federal government, 30 to the distributable pool.

‘I noticed that a lot of attention was spent on issues that are totally irrelevant with regards to the local government. We should not be talking about local government in the constitution.

“What they should discuss is total removal of the provisions of the local government from the constitution. The constitution shouldn’t tell us what we should do about our local governments. It should not contain a list of our local governments.

“Local government is a state matter. 100 percent, it is a state matter. It has nothing to do with the federal government.

“When you talk about funding of local governments — how to create a special account for LG separate from the state governments — they are irrelevant; it shouldn’t be in the constitution at all,” he said.

Ad

Unlocking Opportunities in the Gulf of Guinea during UNGA80
X whatsapp